[antiviral]

Good advice.

Can you recommend the names of any off-the-shelf robotic arms or tools that can be modified or hacked?

Any good standard starting points for controller software?

[tomp]

I recently researched "cheap" (not really but not super extra expensive) robot arms.

(Disclaimer: I haven't bought any of them, so can't say anything about the quality.)

UFactory Lite $3900 https://www.ufactory.cc/product-page/ufactory-lite-6-kit

Dorna 2 $4200 https://dorna.ai/product/dorna-2/

ReBeL cobot €5000 https://www.igus.si/product/20962?artNr=REBEL-6DOF-01

Interbotix https://www.trossenrobotics.com/robotic-arms/ros-research-ar...

DOBOT $2700 https://www.trossenrobotics.com/dobot-mg400-industrial-deskt...

Wlkata Mirobot $2000 https://www.wlkata.com/products/professional-kit-of-wlkata-m...

[thomasthorpe]

The Niryo arm is a high quality kit with good software support package if not updated as often as it could be

https://www.niryo.com

[jonathankoren]

There's plenty of toy arms for programming on every electronics site, including amazon. They're basically just a series of exposed hobby servos mounted together in a plastic skeleton. The motors are pretty much standard. You can even buy them with or without an control board.

Buy an Arduino Mega or something. That way you'll have way more pins that you'll need, and shouldn't hit up against the memory limits. Arduinos have a huge community, and the free IDE has all libraries and everything you need. I bought one and an MP3 shield from AdaFruit last year and successfully made a GNK droid. complete with flashing lights and multiple modes of tranquil gonks.